There are five men (and only five men), of incredible vision and immense mental fortitude, who built America’s infrastructure — the foundation for the spread of ideas and products; ie, free market Capitalism.

In this clip, today’s business leaders weigh in on what America’s first titans of industry all had in common.

John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan rose from obscurity and in the process helped create the greatest superpower the world has ever seen.